PETA: People For The Ethical Treatment Of Their Own Big Fat Wallets

What do the PUSH Coalition and PETA have in common besides catchy acronyms? They’re shakedown artists extraordinaire. Over at Big Government, Mary Grabar has an excellent exposé on PETA (whom I’ve written about for Pajamas Media before). Here’s a bit of what she finds:

But as the corporate representative finds himself fending off charges by PETA, PETA may be profiting from donations and business deals with his competitors. For example, PETA on its website discourages supporters from attending the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus; it encouraged them to protest its Denver show on September 29, 2009, for alleged animal cruelty. In 2002, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk and several colleagues reportedly hectored families attending the circus in Savannah. Then, PETA targeted MasterCard for sponsoring the Circus and encouraged supporters to send their cut-up credit cards back to the company. Ringling Brothers spokeswoman Amy McWethy, disputing PETA’s claims of animal cruelty, pointed to the company’s licensing by the USDA under the Animal Welfare Act, open access to visitors and inspectors, and an elephant conservation center that harbors retired Asian elephants and contains the largest herd of the endangered species outside of Southeast Asia. A July 28, 2009, press release on the website claims that the PETA undercover video was “deceptively edited.” McWethy says the partnership with MasterCard was for a limited duration, but PETA claimed in 2004 that their pressure led to MasterCard’s decision to end the program.

MasterCard competitor, Visa, however, offers a PETA credit card that donates one percent of all purchases back to PETA. Visa, furthermore, is a sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the very same organization that PETA targets as one of its ten prominently displayed “campaigns” for cruelty on its homepage–as it does Barnum and Bailey. The link emblazoned with the Olympics logo leads the visitor to a page that tells him to “urge the Olympic Committee to help end seal slaughter.” Visa also has relationships with other companies whose practices conflict with PETA’s stated mission: the Kentucky Derby, Omaha Steaks, Nine West shoe company, and PETCO (against whom it waged a campaign several years ago).

It’s not about the poor, persecuted pets, it’s about pockebooks and power–PETA’s. PETA is like all the rest of the leftist-grievance exploiters: they want to radically change America to a place where all living things are equal. You, a human, are equal to Fido who is equal to your potted plant who is equal to that roach you just killed. No one is better or worse. No country is better or worse. Etc.

At PETA’s own website, there’s a hilarious post about Iams, the dog food maker, being cruel because, wait for it, they test the food with dogs to see if dogs will like it. PETA does endorse V-dog, though, which is a Vegan dog food ostensibly fed to…dogs. No dog testing though, so I’m guessing eating dog vegan sucks as bad as being a human vegan. How much money does PETA get to endorse V-dog? I’m guessing that it’s enough to not inspire too much curiosity on PETA’s part.

Businesses need to stop caving to these hypocritical crazies. PETA, like all these groups, is about empowerment–their own.